A teenage assassin-in-training stumbles on dark family secrets and confronts an unforeseen menace in Van Sickle’s novel.

Hedy Hinterschott keeps a relatively low profile at the University of San Francisco High School. Eschewing parties and personal relationships isn’t her choice; it’s done for her family’s preservation—the Hinterschott ancestry includes generations of assassins going back half a millennium. Hedy’s parents have been coaching her and her half-witted twin brother, Gary, in talents befitting assassins. Hedy meets Dave Corso, a fellow USF student who intrigues her like no other. Then she learns that her uniqueness—she’s the only Hinterschott female to be born in 500 years—comes from a horrific practice of her unusual family. As if this weren’t enough for a 17-year-old prospective assassin to handle, Hedy is abducted, though the motive isn’t immediately apparent. Are the kidnappers targeting a certain person she’s close to? Or is there another secret her parents haven’t gotten around to telling her? The story, aside from snippets of violence, is lighthearted. Much of it centers on the Hinterschott household, animated by the twins’ sibling banter and their grandmother’s German lilt. Hedy, who narrates, isn’t an instantly likable hero; she berates nearly everyone, from a teacher to Gary’s affectionate dog, with her brother taking the brunt of her incessant jibes (“You are too dumb to breathe”). However, she’s never outright cruel, and she proves bright and capable in all sorts of ways; the ever-vigilant Hedy “reads” strangers, assesses their threat level, and responds to them accordingly (“He’s a short man who approaches us with assertiveness. ‘You can’t loiter here!’ Little big-man syndrome. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times. Verdict: all talk, no action”). The final act amps up suspense when a villain steps into the spotlight. This narrative could easily serve as the first installment of a series that readers would surely welcome.

A sly, unconventional household enlivens this edgy, delightful romp.

Van Sickle’s debut YA novel traces how a young man of privilege makes his way from prep-school to the front lines of World War II.

In 1942, Charles “Charlie” Trammel is the son of a wealthy, East Coast U.S senator and attends a school named after his own family, firmly aware of his silver-spoon position and feeling somewhat lost. The novel alternates between scenes of Charlie and other soldiers in 1944, about to disembark in Normandy on D-Day, and his previous development at home and school. He grows up in a chilly, mirthless mansion with his patrician grandfather and grandmother, alongside his own mother and father. His mother, Mary, is a strong-willed, kindhearted Brooklynite of Irish descent, who gets in a fair amount of disagreements with her blue-blooded in-laws. Charlie attempts to balance the two sides of his family heritage by spending as much time as possible with his mother’s family, who are considerably less well-off, giving him an up-close view of how the other half lives. He begins school at prestigious Trammel Academy without fear of being drafted into the military and with assurance that his name will probably get him into any Ivy League school he desires. Most of his growth as a person takes place at the academy, as he learns much under fiery classics teacher Mrs. Verardi and finds a foil in sneering fellow student Jackson Inverness. Van Sickle smartly centers discussions of privilege, class, honor, and race within the plot. Even so, these discussions often feel clunky and inorganic to Charlie’s first-person narrative voice. The author often falls into the trap of telling instead of showing, rendering the prose didactic and not letting readers draw their own conclusions. Copy editing errors (“And continued to walk passed us like he was Christ on water”) and multiple continuity issues involving dates somewhat mar the reading experience. Mrs. Verardi centers the best scenes of the novel with lively dialogue and a compelling back story. Van Sickle broadly sketches other characters, though, as either purely good or purely malevolent, making the plot largely predictable. That said, the author does have a couple unexpected twists up her sleeve.

A muddled story that mixes trenchant themes with melodramatic plotting.